(PH) BEST COUNTRYSIDE BUSINESSES

This is an article from a magazine last October 2005. It's about a real story of a filipino entrepreneur.

WELCOME TO THE SEAWEED COUNTRY:
Zamboanga’s bountiful seas have made it the home of fish processors and the country’s largest supplier of dried seaweed.
By Marjorie Ann R. Duterte

Zhuvaida Pantaran discovered seaweed around 1995 while visiting her father’s coastal hometown in Zamboanga del Sur, where her poor relatives relied solely on seaweed farming to live. There were no traders in Pagadian City then, so most of the seaweed farmers who could travel to Zamboanga City, sell their harvest. “There were times when no buyers came and they stopped planting,” says Pantaran. “They had no source of living other than seaweed farming.” Moved, Pataran used some of her husband’s savings to buy her relatives’ dried seaweed and initially sold five tons at P15.25 a kilogram to her brother’s employer, a seaweed processor. She later supplied him with 50 tons worth P900,000.

Excited by the dried seaweed’s potential, Pantaran studied everything about it and then provided her relatives and other seaweed farmers with Eucheuma Cottonii seedlings, planting materials, pump boats, and cash advances for their daily needs. She borrowed P250,000 as rolling capital from a rural bank in 1997 to expand her business, turning to the big seaweed processors in Cebu including Shemburg, the industry leader. She now supplies Shemburg, Kerry Food Ingredients, and Genu Philippines with 500 to 700 tons of dried seaweed monthly at P36.50 to P38.00 a kilogram. She buys her stocks from nine seaweed-producing towns in Pagadian that she helped develop.

Pantaran’s ZDS Enterprise re-dries and cleans the farmers’ seaweed in her warehouse and separates the good ones from the bad. Buyers pay her per sack after the dried seaweed is weighed. She nets P250,000 a month form the business, and she is thankful that her husband, a contract worker based abroad, no longer needed to leave the country to earn money.

“My first intention was to help, but I found it was very profitable business,” she says.

This is another story that has inspired me and I think for many as well. Zhuvaida Pantaran has not only helped her relatives, but the livelihood of the seaweed farmers community, whose source of living has no guarantee of continues support for them. She has provided them income, in turn, she gained profits. Just like Muhamad Yunus, she has seen the need of her fellowmen from the countryside, and she has come up with a desire to help them not only to improve and develop, but change their lives. From her simple desire to help others, it has given her a big success and wealth. It takes a lot of risk and effort to be successful, but the eagerness and desire to achieve it will make it possible.

When you want your business to be successful, you have to consider the people behind it. These people are those who strive to be in your business and whom you share your goals and visions with. They are the ones who work hard for the success of your business, and you in turn, will help them achieved their goals. The ability to work with these people with humbleness and positive attitude will enhance and strengthen the working conditions inside the business.

Posted by: Jasmin Bautista

The 1st Filipino!

Illac Diaz

AKA Illac Angelo Ancellotti Diaz

1st Filipino winner of the 1st DHL Young Entrepreneurs for Sustainability Award (YES, 2007)

1st Filipino recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Men award for social entrepreneurship (TOYM, 2005)

1st Filipino Winner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology US$100K Business Plan Competition
Founder of the Usap-Kamay program

Founder of MyShelter Foundation

“Nowadays, our most important resource is being left out: the young people who want to make a change. Young people can change the world. Sometimes, establishments don’t work. It’s up to us to find a way to do what we want.” -ID

Who is Illac Diaz?

Diaz, Illac

Prior Education

MIT Special Program in Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS), Research

Fellow Asian Institute of Management, Masters of Entrepreneurship
Ateneo de Manila University, Business Administration Degree

Professional Experience

My Shelter Foundation: Executive Director
Pier One Seafarer’s Center: President
Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World for Social Enterprise Award Recipient 2006
MIT $100,000 Business Plan Competition Grand Prize Winner (Development track)
Ashoka Low-Cost Housing Global Competition Finalist (2006)

Biography

Illac: "My involvement with social enterprise began as a thesis project for my masters program. We were challenged to seek opportunities where business skills could be used to create sustainable solutions to poverty situations in the Manila area. I was interested in the impacts of the large transient population brought about by the country’s focus on exporting labor, especially on housing and HIV/AIDS. This lead me to do research on the seafarer population, which had the highest rate of movement into the city at about a million people a year; this group also accounted for 35% of all HIV cases recorded for the Overseas Contract Workers (OCW). No alternatives were available to this low-income group."

"Starting with only forty beds, Pier One was established as a shelter where seafarers could find accommodation for one dollar a night and a unique system where they could be given temporary jobs during their stay. This project has since grown to 1,500 beds, and it has both served and provided job assistance to over 95,000 maritime workers to date. The program is further strengthened by weekly programs on HIV/AIDS and the availability of free medical assistance. Through the Fellowship, I am excited to break new ground with insights I will gain from my colleagues and knowledge I will gain from the program that will increase the social impact of my work."